Salary Survey Extra: IT salaries and formal education

Salary Survey Extra is a series of periodic dispatches that give added insight into the findings of our most recent Salary Survey. These posts contain previously unpublished Salary Survey data.

Past work experience and past educational attainment are two of the biggest influences on hiring decisions, not just in IT, but across the employment spectrum. Work experience can be difficult to quantify in a survey — beyond simple factors like number of years worked — but educational background is far easier to pinpoint.

This is true in part because so many workers pursue education up to a readily identifiable point, and then transition to full-time employment. There are exceptions: Many adult workers eventually choose to further their education by returning to college. Others take an ongoing interest in learning by means of certification or other formal training.

The latter trend, in particular, is alive and well in the IT industry, where technology changes so rapidly that it’s almost essential to keep learning just to stay afloat. On the other hand, while they continue to seek knowledge, most IT professionals can still point to a particular moment when their primary focus shifted from education to full-time employment.

We’ve drawn our usual line between U.S. survey respondents and those in other nations. When it comes to post-secondary education, however, the overall composition of both groups is notably similar. On the survey, we ask respondents to identify the highest level of formal education they’ve completed. The breakdown is as follows:

United States — What is the highest level of education you have completed? Bachelor’s degree: 36.2 percent Master’s degree: 35 percent Two-year college degree: 9.9 percent Technical training (no college degree): 8.4 percent High school diploma: 3.6 percent Currently in school: 3.1 percent Doctorate: 1.7 percent Professional degree (such as for law or medicine): 1 percent No formal education prior to entering the workforce: 0.1 percent

All Non-U.S. Countries — What is the highest level of education you have completed? Bachelor’s degree: 43.6 percent Master’s degree: 31.9 percent Two-year college degree: 7.1 percent Technical training (no college degree): 5.6 percent Professional degree (such as for law or medicine): 4.7 percent High school diploma: 4.5 percent Doctorate: 1.3 percent Currently in school: 0.8 percent No formal education prior to entering the workforce: 0.5 percent

We’ve chosen not to consider the salary data from groups smaller than two percent of their respective survey populations. That leaves us with the following:

AVERAGE ANNUAL SALARY INDEXED BY HIGHEST LEVEL OF FORMAL EDUCATION

UNITED STATES

ALL OTHER COUNTRIES

Highest Level of Education

Salary

Highest Level of Education

Salary

Bachelor’s degree

$108,490

Bachelor’s degree

$53,090

Master’s degree

$124,320

Master’s degree

$61,670

Two-year college degree

$79,590

Two-year college degree

$78,750

Technical training

$97,750

Technical training

$66,840

High school diploma

$104,980

High school diploma

$60,040

Currently in school

$46,990

Professional degree

$48,790

Insufficient data: Doctorate, professional degree, no formal education prior to entering the workforce

Insufficient data: Doctorate, currently in school, no formal education prior to entering the workforce

2016 Salary Data

Survey data strongly indicates that you can make your way in the IT realm without necessarily completing a college education first. U.S. IT workers who entered the workforce directly from high school, in particular, as well as those whose only post-secondary education is technical training (typically one or more certifications), made a strong showing in our survey results.

Outside the United States, it would seem, there’s a clear advantage to the briefer higher education interval of a two-year degree. And while an overwhelming majority of non-U.S. survey respondents hold bachelor’s or master’s degrees, it’s far from clear that employers are giving degree holders preference when it comes to hiring and compensation.

In the United States, however, there’s still a clear benefit to earning an advanced degree. While the average annual salary of a U.S. bachelor’s degree holder is only somewhat more impressive than that claimed by the admittedly much smaller class of high school-only survey respondents, holding a master’s degree is a status clearly preferred (and compensated accordingly) by U.S. employers.